Sunday, November 8, 2009

Is it a pumpkin or a scarercrow? We'll call him a Pumpcrow and here is how to make him.

I finally got time to finish up my 'pumpkin heads' that I started a while back. I know, Halloween is over and everyone has Christmas on their minds but I am still in the fall mode, after all scarecrows and pumpkins do go with Thanksgiving right? I have had several requests to share how these were made so I'm going to give as much help as I can. This is an original (copyright) Heidi Markish Design and the pattern may be bought at heidimarkishdesigns.com. The head is made from 6 panels of cotton batting (tea dyed), I bought mine at Wal Mart but you can get it at any quilting store also. You will also need two 1/2" black buttons for the eyes, black and cream colored crochet thread; orange yarn; wide ribbon for the hat; black felt for the hat and misc. orange material for the scarf. You will also need some fiber fill, raffia, misc. fall flowers and leaves, hot glue and a long doll needle. Heidi's pattern calls for a wooden nose and flower but as with any pattern I changed it to fit the materials I had on hand.

First I cut 6 oval shaped panels about 10" long from the batting sewing them right sides together on the edge, leaving the top open. Turn the head inside out. It will look like a deflated basketball with an opening at the top.

Fill a small baggie with kitty litter and set in the bottom of the head. You will then need to stuff the head with batting filling it up to make the little guy nice and plump. The litter will give him some weight to sit better. Cut 3 long pieces of cream colored crochet thread to wrap around the seams of the head. Along each seam of the head panels wrap a piece of crochet thread up and around the seam pulling it tight and tying at the top. Do this to all seams. **This is the instructions, I used one very long thread, sitting the pumpkin on top of it in the middle I brought the thread up to the top, criss crossed took it back down to more sides, crisscrossed and brought them back to the top to tie. Like I said I usually change instructions to meet my needs. Don't worry that you can see the tied area at the top, you will be covering it up.

Once you have him stuffed you will need to create his face using the long doll needle and black crochet thread. I used a copy of the pattern and pinned it to his head. With large corsage pins I placed a pin at each starting point of his eyebrows, and mouth. I gently tore the pattern off leaving the pins stuck in the material. Then simply stitched long stitches starting with the eyebrow, going to the mouth and back up to the eye brow. I placed the buttons below his eyebrow and sewed those on at this time. He is now starting to look like a happy little head.

To make him even happier give him a little blush from your own compact. I use a darker blush but my friend had pink blush to put on hers and that really made him a rosy little fellow.

To make the nose I simply folded a piece of orange fabric in half right sides together and cut a triangle, I lightly stuffed it with batting and then used my black crochet thread to stitch around the outside. I used glue to attach. Isn't he getting to be a sweet little guy.

Onto his shaggy little head. I made small bundles of raffia tieing it in the middle with a another piece of raffia. It took 9 small bundles to make a full head of hair. I hot glued this across the top of his head, being careful not to burn myself...ok I wasn't careful and now have a big blister, but after that I WAS careful. I put 5 straight across, 2 front to back and 2 at an angle. After the glue was set, he got a nice little hair cut, just so his little eyes could peek out from under his hat. To really secure his hair I put a couple stitches crisscrossing some very large stitches. You will be gluing the hat over the top of his hair so nothing shows.

To make his hat you will need to cut a piece of felt 18"x7 1/2", stitching them right sides together on the short side. For the brim, cut 2 12" circles (the pattern called for 11 inches) but I liked the hat a little larger. Whip stitch the two pieces together using the orange yarn. For the top of the hat you will have to cut a 5 1/2" circle from black felt then stitch it to the tube. I thought the top was rather high so I folded the bottom of the hat under about 3/4 of an inch. Lightly stuff the top of the hat with batting. Hot glue it to the large circle. For added stability I ran a stitch around the bottom in a couple of places, you won't be able to see it once you glue the 2 1/2 ribbon around the bottom. Glue the large circle to the top of the head, add the flower and leaves to the bottom of the brim. (Please refer to the picture for placement).

To finish, Heidi's pattern calls for a scrap of fabric about 54"x8" long which she wrapped around the bottom of the head and secured with hot glue or by making a stitch every 4' inches or so. With some of my heads I left them bland for others I took fabric 54"x10" folded it in half and took a large stitch about 1" down from the top of the raw edges. I gathered it up into a tight circle then glued/stitched it to the bottom of the pumpkin, for a little added fun I glued some pieces of raffia around the edges too.

Look who liked Mr. Pumpcrow...little Ms. Cali thought the raffia was great fun and she has to sit next to everyone of these I make. Silly cat.

P.S. A little dit dot of white to each button makes his little eyes sparkle. A dit dot as all the craft painters know is a tip of a thin paint brush dipped into white and touched to the button. For best dots, dip the end of your brush into the paint each time, this makes uniform dots. Hope you all get a chance to make one of these, they are great gifts!